Emails show cooperation among EPA and climate science denialists at Heartland Institute

By Ellen Knickmeyer 26 May 2018 WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Newly released emails show senior Environmental Protection Agency officials working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming, counter negative news coverage, and promote Administrator Scott Pruitt’s stewardship of the agency. John […]

Trump opens door to dangerous fracking in Northern Arizona – Plan to auction 4,200 acres sidesteps environmental review, threatens national park, groundwater, river

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, 21 May 2018 (Center for Biological Diversity) – A new Trump administration plan proposes to auction off 4,200 acres of public land for oil and gas development in northern Arizona. The lands straddle the Little Colorado River, are within three miles of Petrified Forest National Park, and are near habitat for a federally […]

Trump on abused immigrant children: “They’re not innocent”– Border Patrol accused of sexually and physically abusing child detainees

By Luke Darby 25 May 2018 (GQ) – The Trump administration called immigrant children future criminals on the same day Border Patrol was accused of sexually and physically abusing child detainees.In April of 2017, when Donald Trump ordered his first missile strike in Syria, the president said that he was moved by the images of […]

“Climate change is real” automakers tell White House in letter – “We have a continuing role in reducing greenhouse gases and improving fuel efficiency”

By Ryan Beene 21 May 2018 (Automotive News) – Automakers urged the White House to cooperate with California officials in a coming rewrite of vehicle efficiency standards, saying “climate change is real.”The plea came in a 3 May 2018 letter to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, […]

Climate science misrepresented by House Science Committee members

16 May 2018 (Silencing Science Tracker) – Several members of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology misrepresented climate science during a hearing on 16 May 2018. For example: Committee Chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) questioned scientific research showing that sea level rise is caused by climate change. Rep. Smith entered into the record […]

White House, EPA blocked chemical pollution study showing widespread contamination of U.S. water supplies, citing “potential public relations nightmare”

By Annie Snider 14 May 2018 (Politico) – Scott Pruitt’s EPA and the White House sought to block publication of a federal health study on a nationwide water-contamination crisis, after one Trump administration aide warned it would cause a “public relations nightmare,” newly disclosed emails reveal. The intervention early this year — not previously disclosed […]

Pentagon revised report to remove risks from climate change – “Taking out maps of critical areas of flooding, that’s pretty fundamental”

By Chris Mooney and Missy Ryan 10 May 2018 (The Washington Post) – Internal changes to a draft Defense Department report de-emphasized the threats climate change poses to military bases and installations, muting or removing references to climate-driven changes in the Arctic and potential risks from rising seas, an unpublished draft obtained by The Washington […]

Actors were paid to support Entergy’s power plant at New Orleans City Council meetings – “They paid us to sit through the meeting and clap every time someone said something against wind and solar power”

By Michael Isaac Stein 4 May 2018 (The Lens) – Last October, about 50 people in bright orange shirts filed into City Hall for a public hearing on Entergy’s request to build a $210 million power plant in eastern New Orleans. Their shirts read, “Clean Energy. Good Jobs. Reliable Power.” The purpose of the hearing […]

Trump White House quietly cancels NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System – “We really shoot ourselves in the foot if we let other people develop the technology”

By Paul Voosen 9 May 2018 (Science) – You can’t manage what you don’t measure. The adage is especially relevant for climate-warming greenhouse gases, which are crucial to manage—and challenging to measure. In recent years, though, satellite and aircraft instruments have begun monitoring carbon dioxide and methane remotely, and NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a […]

UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting by EU, UK, US – “There may not be a pathway to 1.5 degrees anymore — at all. Carbon capture and storage is a fantasy.”

By Justin Catanoso 2 May 2018 (Mongabay) – For the past ten years, Mary Booth, an ecologist with the Partnership for Policy Integrity in Pelham, Massachusetts, has immersed herself in the complex, nuanced, politically charged world of international carbon emissions accounting models as if the planet’s fate depends on it. In many ways, it does. […]

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